As California increases efforts to promote a more sustainable, multi-modal transportation ecosystem, it is important to understand how different parcel uses, especially those that benefit from public funding, such as schools, determine parking requirements. Given California’s evolving approach to off-street parking provisions and the state’s funding of new school development projects, the amount of parking must be documented, and its implications understood. Currently, the California Department of Education (CDE)’s guidance on parking is based upon enrollment size and satisfying parking demand during peak periods – a common practice in parking planning and development. With an understanding of how much parking exists at new high schools, the state may be able to eliminate or modify the parking recommendations, taking a more holistic approach to recommending transportation planning strategies rather than parking planning strategies.

This research quantifies the amount of parking at new public high schools in California. It analyzes the relationship between parking counts, school enrollment, and the size of the education workforce to create average driver to parking spot ratios across different locale designations. Additionally, this research compares parking counts to the CDE and municipality guidelines to determine the extent to which they adhere to established standards.